


Word of the Day

by decrescendo



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Family Feels, Family Fluff, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Parental Jim "Chief" Hopper, Post-Season/Series 01
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-02-28 05:07:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18749623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decrescendo/pseuds/decrescendo
Summary: The start of a long tradition.





	Word of the Day

El, it turned out, loved figure skating. Hopper had forgotten about the Olympics entirely, so caught up with his hidden ward and and Will’s appointments that the world outside of Hawkins seemed very far away, though to tell the truth he probably wouldn’t have remembered or cared even in a normal year. But he’d come home from work one evening in the middle of February to find her sitting cross-legged in front of the TV, gazing at it even more raptly than usual, as a pair of skaters in sparkly costumes glided through a routine set to triumphant-sounding music.

She gave no indication that she’d noticed him coming in, though he could see the blood under her nose from unlocking the door for him. After getting a beer from the fridge he sat down on the couch behind her and for a few minutes just watched her watching the skaters. In moments like this, sipping a cold beer after work while El watched TV, its as easy to pretend that everything was normal. That he’d always had this life and that in a few minutes he’d have to remind her to do her homework or she’d pester him about letting a friend come sleep over. But he couldn’t quite ignore the ache he felt seeing how entranced she was by something so unremarkable to him as the televised Winter Olympics.

“So,” he said as the music gave way to applause and the skaters left the rink. “You like figure skating, huh?”

“Figure skating,” she repeated without tearing her gaze from the TV, pronouncing the words carefully.

“Yeah, figure skating. It’s a…a sport that some people do, like dancing, expect on ice and they wear special shoes called skates that let them slide like that.”

She turned to him then, looking startled. “On ice?”

“Yeah,” he said, smiling at the disbelief on her face. “It’s called an ice rink. They freeze a lot of water, I guess, in a big building, like a stadium, and then they…do something to make it all smooth like that.”

El was still looking at him blankly. “Stadium?”

“Yeah. Stadium.” Then, on a whim, he added, “Why don’t we make that your word of the day?”

“Word of the day.” She glanced back at the TV where the next pair was about to start, clearly afraid of missing a single moment. “Why...of the day?”

“Well,” he said, “there’s a lot of words you don’t know still, right? So maybe we can pick a new one for you to learn every day. You know, to catch you up a little bit.”

She nodded, and he did miss the way the corners of her mouth perked up in excitement over the prospect of learning something new. He really ought to start her on some kind of formal education, he thought. Get her some old textbooks, or something.

But for now he just patted the space next to him on the sofa, and tried to hide his smile when she climbed up to sit next to him without hesitation. A month ago, he’d never have imagined it was possible, the ease she now seemed to feel around him. And just over two months ago she’d hardly seemed real, just some kind of myth roaming the forest, as if he’d dreamed her up one night in a drunken stupor, not held her hand as she lowered herself into a pool of saltwater to search for Joyce’s lost son.

“So,” he said, once she’d made herself comfortable. “Stadium. S-T-A-D-I-U-M. It’s a—it’s kind of like the gym we were in at the school, but way bigger, so that thousands of people can all watch a sport together. Like, look—“ He pointed at the TV, which was displaying a wide shot of the cheering crowd above the ice rink. “That’s where they are, a stadium, to watch the figure skating.”

She nodded, and then the music started and she leaned forward slightly, once again entirely absorbed by the twirling couple on the screen.

It was dinner time, Hopper realized, and she hadn’t gotten the TV dinners out for them the way he’d started asking her to do before he got home. It would be good for her, he thought, to pick up some kind of schedule, some appreciation for routine and chores and the sot of responsibilities that normal thirteen-year-olds should have. But she’d clearly been too entranced by the skating to think of anything else, so he didn’t bother scolding her, just took another sip of his beer and watched the Olympics with her. It really was impressive, he had to admit, the way they glided and jumped so effortlessly. He himself had little appreciation for that sort of thing, but he could easily understand why El was so enthralled. He glanced over at her again and smiled. Dinner could wait.


End file.
